by Luo Guanzhong
2Let us now turn to Cao Cao. On that day, he said to He Jin, "There have been calamities caused by eunuchs since ancient times. However, a ruler can not use their favored status as a pretext to bring about the situation with which we are now faced. If you would like to punish wrongdoers, then you should get rid of the original culprit. However, you only need to employ one jailor for this task. There is no need to call up outside troops in such great numbers. If you want to kill all of them, the matter is bound to get out. I predict that it is doomed to fail." He Jin angrily replied, "Mengde, I take it that you have your own personal agenda?"[1] Cao withdrew, saying, "It is Jin that is determined to wreak havoc on this world." Jin then quietly sent someone on a mission to travel non-stop and personally deliver the secret decree to each and every hamlet.
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Let us now turn to former general Dong Zhuo --- the marquis of Tai Village, and governor of Xiliang Province[2] --- who had failed to break up the Yellow Turbans. The court was planning on punishing him, but he bribed the ten regular attendants and got off lucky. Afterwards, he got cozy with some of the powerful officials at court, so he was appointed to a noteworthy post. He was in charge a large army of 200,000 men in Xizhou,[3] but continued to harbor feelings of disloyalty. After he received this latest decree, he was overjoyed. He called up the army and cavalry, and marched them nonstop. He placed his son-in-law, Commander of the Palace Guard Niu Fu, in charge of defending Shaanxi. He led the rest of the army toward Luoyang, accompanied by people such as Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji and Fan Chou. Li Ru, Zhuo's son-in-law and advisor, said, "Even though our intention is to obey the decree, there are many vagaries within its text; why not send someone with a petition to the emperor which clearly states our intentions, so that we may accomplish great things." Zhuo was overjoyed, and sent the petition to the emperor. It said something to the effect of:
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We, your subjects, have overheard that the reason for all of the chaos in the country is that the likes of eunuchs such as Zhang Rang and his ilk have been making a mockery of the natural hierarchy of relationships among men. We have heard it said that lifting the soup to stop it from boiling is less effective than taking away the firewood. Piercing an abscess to let the puss drain might be painful, but it is better than letting it fester. We boldly sound the drums and gongs of war on our way into Luoyang, so that we can clear out the likes of Rang and his cohorts. This is good for the nation! This is good for the world!
Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.
This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.
Chapter Summary: How Dong Zhuo rebukes Ding Yuan in the Garden of Warmth and Brightness; Li Su wins over Lü Bu with offerings of gold and pearls.
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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.
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